I now think that adding those app-specific was a mistake — which is unfortunately not so easy to revert. My dream-solution is to remove the different app-specific RATING MM , RATING WMP , ... fields and to have Mp3tag show the raw data ( POPULARIMETER , RATING , RATE , ...). To ease displaying this data, instead of having dedicated fields I can imagine having a scripting function, e.g., $rating(%field%) that converts the raw value in a star-like representation.

that sounds amazing, and i think is the best solution. to be clear, popularimeter [should] always show the raw data. then use scripts for different additional columns to convert that raw data to either a numerical value, or an actual star.

so say 196 is the POPM value. in that case mp3tag would show:

popularimeter = whatever txt string | 196 | #

but another column via a script would map that as

4

while yet another column via a script would map that as

****

while yet another column via a script would map that as

80

why 80? b/c 80 is the value that 196 is translated into on a 0-100 scale, which is how ratings are stored in the MM database. (in other words, all ratings from any format or spec are translated into a 0-100 scale in the MM db)

anyway, your proposal would be the ideal solution imo for mp3tag to follow!!

thank you Florian for your very detailed explanation. i hope you have time to implement this.

just FYI i am currently back at it, trying to nail down what values are written and read for MM for bombs and half stars. i don't anticipate being able to get them to make any more changes but from what i can gather there are some really strange things about how MM reads and interprets some values. however, whatever MM does, and will do going forward, i just want to know b/c it seems development has revived to some degree on winamp, and i am hopeful to get them to implement half stars, and to do it in such a way that is compatible with MM. (i know of no other app that writes values to POPM for bombs/half stars other than MM)

the good news is that at this point, EVERY app i know of writes 1,64,128,196, and 255 for whole stars (for id3 / POPM). that really simplified things.